Trans-Siberian Orchestra's tales of loss and redemption

Twenty-five years ago, Trans-Siberian Orchestra released its debut album "Christmas Eve and Other Stories," a holiday-themed album of love, loss, and redemption that bridged the worlds of metal, classical, and Broadway. It begat sales of 3 million, further platinum albums, and an annual touring tradition that, since 1999, has transformed into a Yuletide concert juggernaut. Today, the expanded ensemble brings that debut album to life onstage again at UBS Arena for two shows. While TSO founder/ mastermind/composer Paul O’Neill may have passed away in 2017, his spirit can still be felt among his musical flock. Speaking to Newsday, guitarists Chris Caffery and Al Pitrelli (aHicksville native) expressed excitement about being back on tour.

How do you keep this material fresh after performing it on tour so many times in the past?

Pitrelli: It's like if you ask me, Do you ever get tired of hearing your child say "I love you" or kissing my kids good night? Or looking out at the sunrise saying, "Hey, got another day, we’re good." Chris and I have been there since this thing [TSO] opened its eyes. We love it like it is one of our own. It'll never get old. Every show will be a first show. Because like I always say, it might be my 50th show, but it's gonna be your first show that night. So that makes it our first show together.

"A Christmas Carol" is a beloved holiday tale that’s also a ghost story. TSO narratives combine elements of light and dark. Do you think that keeps pulling people back, especially with something like Christmas Eve?

Pitrelli: People who come to the show relate to the story because everybody misses somebody, especially around Christmas. Everybody's got an empty chair at the dining room table that becomes much more apparent around the holidays. In Paul’s story, at the center of it is a father who misses his runaway teenage daughter [and seeks a reunion]. For a lot of people who are suffering loss like that, Christmas becomes very bittersweet. So they’ve inserted their situation into Paul's words, and it becomes about them. What I’ve noticed was that if everybody in the arena thinks the same way for that moment, at least they're not alone in their their pain, their loss. It doesn't make my cancer better than yours, yours worse than mine or anything like that. But if we’re all in the same boat together for that two hours, you have a sense of camaraderie, a sense of family, a sense of we're all going through this. That eases it a little bit.

Do you still feel Paul’s presence lingering in all of this?

Caffery: Absolutely. Even when he wasn't at the shows, when he was alive, he was still at the shows. I was always, for some reason, performing for Paul. This was his baby, and he had ways he wanted us to do things and things that he wanted me to do on stage. That was something that never left while he was still with us. But now that he's gone, I think he's there all the time. He was like a big brother and dad for me in a lot of ways. When the world went through problems before in the past, I would call Paul and he would always have a way to make me feel better about things. The hard part now is I don't have a Paul to call, so I have to dig in my own inner Paul. I know when I hit that stage, there's just something about the influence he had on me as a performer that I just want to make sure that he's happy when he sees what we're doing.

What's the most challenging song emotionally for you to play?

Caffery: "Ornament" is the one where you will look in the crowd, and there are a lot of people that maybe hadn't seen their father or their uncle for years. You'll have these groups of people that will be there laughing and smiling and realizing they got together because they were able to go see TSO. Sometimes you'll even see the person that goes there and buys two tickets and sits by themselves. And that [other] person's not there. You're crying with them, and you know why they're crying because you recognize them. You saw them for 10 years, and then they're by themselves. You know why that seat’s empty. It's hard when you know that people are in that kind of pain and you can't go hug them. But you play and know what that song and the lyric is doing, and you know exactly what's going on with them.